How Many Special People Change?
by Sopherdoodle
Summary: She ran out of the house, holding back tears. She felt she couldn't take it anymore. Who's going to be the one to save her? Ellie AngstCraigEllie Fluffish.


Rating: T  
Ship: Craig/Ellie  
Genre: Drama/Romance  
Spoilers: Yep. Some about season 6 Ellie (minus the Jesse business.)  
Summary: Ellie's mother has relapsed. Craig loses his record deal. Can one be the support that the other needs? (The focus is mainly on Ellie)

**WARNING:** Very, Very fluffy. Oh, and I do not own Degrassi or the song used in this by Oasis. Yada yada yoo.

_How many special people change?  
How many lives are living strange?  
Where were you while we were getting high?_

Ellie Nash opened the door of the apartment she shared with her mother. It had been a very long day at the newspaper office, and frankly she was sick of being yelled at by her bosses. Her hair was in messy loose curls, and she was wearing a worn out black off-the-shoulders sweater, dark jeans, and her black wrist cuff. She glanced over at the mirror by the entrance wondering if she looked as frazzled as she felt.

She was completely exhausted. She tossed her bag on the chair next to the door and hung her coat up on the coat rack. She truged over to her usual spot on the couch and was about to completely collapse onto it, until she noticed someone lying under the blanket.

"Mom?" she whispered. When she heard no response, she ripped the covers off of her. Sure enough, there she was passed out on the couch in her usual position. Ellie slowly shook her head as she noticed the bottles of beer sprawled out on the table next to the couch.

_Slowly walking down the hall  
Faster than a cannonball  
Where were you while we were getting high?_

Ellie bit her lip, fighting back the tears. Her mom promised her she stopped drinking. She promised Ellie that she'd get help. In fact, that was the only reason that Ellie moved back home in the first place. Why would Ellie's mom flat-out lie to her like that? Her mother knew that everytime she got drunk, it not only hurt her and Ellie, but also other people as well.

Ellie didn't even notice a tear slip out of her eye as she thought about her mother's rude comments to others while she was drunk. Ellie's mom has been drinking since Ellie could remember. Her drinking started getting heavier and heavier ever since her father was sent to fight in Iraq.

And what caused her to drink again? Ellie thought her mother was fighting this. She thought her mother was stronger than that. Her mother spent so much time re-building Ellie's shattered trust barrier. Ellie thought things were going great between them. She needed answers.

"Mom! MOM!" Ellie shouted shaking her mother, trying to get her to wake up. No response. Mrs. Nash was out totally cold. Ellie's tears were uncontrollable now, pouring down her face.

_Someday you will find me  
Caught beneath the landslide  
In a champagne supernova in the sky_

Ellie couldn't take it anymore. After she checked her mother's pulse and realized that she was breathing, she ran out of the apartment and down the stairs. She couldn't deal with her drunken passed out mother right now. She needed to get out of the room, she felt that she'd be content anywhere else but that dark place with the half-burnt off green wallpaper.

Since it was almost two in the morning, she figured she wouldn't see anyone around at the hour anyways. She sat on the front steps of her apartment complex, staring out at the road ahead of her. Even though the crying subdued, Ellie felt a tear slowly crawl down her cheek.

She wondered if she should be used to it by now. Her mom wasn't ever one to trust, she always said she'd stop drinking, but why was this time so different? Why was any other time different from the others? Every time Ellie saw her mother drunk, it hurt her. Everytime that her mother was extra goofy or irritable because she was drunk, it hurt Ellie.

Was there something wrong with her? I mean surely, she should be used to this by now. It shouldn't affect her this much.

But it did. Ellie couldn't help but get upset when her mother was drunk. It still affected her now as much as it did the first time she ever saw her mom pass out because of drinking. And there was nothing in the world that could make her feel better right now than seeing her mom alcohol free. The way she was a long time ago. Long before Ellie could clearly remember.

Ellie then noticed a shadow approaching her on the street. She tried to wipe the tears from her eyes and flatten her hair before the stranger came over. The last thing she needed right now was to have a random stranger know she was an emotional wreck, even though Ellie knew that any person in their right mind could tell that she was just crying.

As the shadow started morphing into a person, Ellie got a little nervous. She tightened up and sat up straight, she didn't want anyone thinking she was vulnerable.

"Ellie Nash?" She heard a deep voice call out to her. At first, she was alarmed because this mystery person knew who she was. After a moment, she realized who it was. His familiar deep voice was soothing to her.

_Someday you will find me  
Caught beneath the landslide  
In a champagne supernova  
A champagne supernova in the sky_

"Craig?" She stood up and felt him pulling her into a huge bear hug. As she hugged him, she rubbed his back, smelling in the sweet spice of his cologne that he always used to wear. "How are you? How was Vancouver? Why are you back?" She started to ask questions quickly, looking him up and down. He was wearing an old vintage t-shirt, ripped jeans, and his blue denim chucks. Typical Craig, but Ellie thought that it suited him well.

"Slow down, El. What is this, 20 questions?" Craig joked, smiling at her before his smile dropped into a frown. "Well, I'm as okay as I'll ever be. Vancouver was totally awful. And I'm back because, well, after my little break for graduation, Leo decided that I didn't have the 'it' factor anymore. Or something like that. I couldn't really hear what he was saying, he basically told him I sucked."

He paused for a moment, looking down at the ground. "And now I'm roaming the streets in the middle of the night, just trying to clear my head."

"I'm sorry, Craig." Ellie responded softly. "And I don't think you suck."

"Thanks, El." Craig added, looking straight into her eyes for the first time. "Are you okay? You look like you were.."

_Wake up the dawn and ask her why  
A dreamer dreams, she never dies  
Wipe that tear away now from your eye_

"I'm fine," Ellie interrupted, "Really." She turned away from Craig trying to take a snap at her wrist with her wristband. It was no rubberband however, and it didn't work.

"You definitiely don't seem okay." Craig mentioned, worried, "Was it your mom?"

_Slowly walking down the hall  
Faster than a cannonball  
Where were you while we were getting high?_

Ellie stopped in her tracks. How on earth could he have known? It probably was because he heard everything about her life in group. She nodded, slowly turning back to him.

"Uhh. Yeah." Ellie responded, "I saw her passed out on the couch with, oh, every type of beer in Canada next to her," Ellie sounded a little bitter when she said that. She realized this, and took a deep breath, her eyes misting up with tears.

"I should really be used to this by now though." She added, biting her lip. "I just, I don't know, it still gets to me."

"It's not something to just get used to, Ellie." Craig responded, "I don't know if I could handle that, El, you're stronger than you think." He smiled, moving closer and closer toward her.

"You think?" Ellie asked, smiling at him. He always had this way of making her feel better about things.

"Nope." He said blinking and moving closer and closer to her face. She moved into him, hypnotized by his dark green eyes. "I know." He added pressing his forehead against hers. She moved her lips closer to his, she could feel his inviting breath on her lips.

_Someday you will find me  
Caught beneath the landslide  
In a champagne supernova in the sky_

Suddenly, before she could think, she felt his lips crash against hers. He slid his one arm around her waist and positioned his other hand on her face. Instincively she slid her arms around his neck and continued to kiss him softly.

She then realized what she was doing. She was so caught up in the moment that she didn't even think twice about Manny. She pulled away from Craig before the kiss deepend. Craig looked back at her with a confused look.

"Craig, we shouldn't do this." Ellie looked down at the floor. "What about Manny?"

"We broke up." Craig stated simply. Ellie would admit, she wasn't too sorry to hear that.

"Sorry to hear that." She retorted.

Craig smirked a little hearing her sarcasm. "I realized that Manny and I, we didn't really understand each other. Sure, we've been through a lot, but she doesn't get me like. She doesn't make me feel happy. You do."

Craig grinned at Ellie, grabbing her hand. That was all he had to say. Ellie leaned in again, kissing Craig more passionately than the first kiss. He wrapped his arm around her waist, she wrapped hers around his neck, and they stood on the stairs continuing to kiss each other, connecting in ways they never imagined before.

And for the first time in a long time, Ellie totally forgot about her mother's drinking. She felt stronger than ever before.

_Someday you will find me  
Caught beneath the landslide  
In a champagne supernova  
A champagne supernova in the sky_


End file.
